Sydney tar ponds lawsuit quashed by Supreme Court

Neila MacQueen says a Supreme Court of Canada decision to quash a class action by residents exposed to toxic substances from the Sydney tar ponds is blocking her access to justice.

“I’m disappointed, and it does not surprise me,” said MacQueen, who lives a short distance from the former tar ponds site.

“I feel that it’s a rich man’s world we live in. For an average person like myself, it seems we cannot go to court.”

On Thursday, Canada’s highest court denied four plaintiffs and up to 500 class-action members the ability to seek a full hearing in relation to their claims against the Nova Scotia and federal governments.

As is typical with Supreme Court decisions, no reason was given for the dismissal.

MacQueen, however, said she has proof of contamination in the form of soil tests that government officials took from the yard of her Dorchester Street home.

“My soil tests here were terrible,” said MacQueen. “According to the (Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines) the recommended level is 140 (parts per million) for lead and I was 976. And arsenic is, I think, 12 (parts per million) and mine was 127.

“I’ve had lung cancer and never smoked a cigarette in my life, my son was born with cerebral palsy and I think it’s the highest cancer rate in Canada right here in Sydney.”

MacQueen said going up against the government is a daunting task, but she was willing to stand up for what is right.

“If it would stop these large companies from coming into areas and contaminating their soil, and making the people sick, and if I only helped one little child, it was worth it,” she said, her voice shaking.

“Financially, it has affected me, because if I go to sell my house here, I have to give a true discovery, and I would not want to sell it to anybody that had children.”

The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned the certification of the class action in December 2013.

At the time, provincial and federal government lawyers successfully argued that a provincial Supreme Court judge was wrong in certifying the case because there was not enough common ground to tie together all the individual cases.

Ray Wagner, one of the Halifax-area lawyers handling the matter, said residents are now left with few options.

They can proceed in a legal action that combines all individuals in a single action known as a mass tort or they can bring forward separate actions on behalf of individuals.

A third option would be to abandon the lawsuit altogether.

“We’ll be talking with the representative plaintiffs probably next week, in person, and we’ll have an opportunity to go over what the options are and get instructions from them,” said Wagner.

“It would be a great day, I believe, for the citizens of Sydney to have the contamination issues that exist in their backyard determined at a trial, but the barriers to do that are mounting.”

Already a cost award has been ordered against the representative plaintiffs in the amount of $736,000, however, an appeal on the costs is underway.

If unsuccessful, lawyers handling the case say they plan to foot the bill.

Two law firms, Wagners law firm of Halifax and Siskinds LLP of London, Ont., have already spent about $700,000 out-of-pocket in disbursements.

That doesn’t include the millions of dollars worth of lawyer hours that have been invested in pushing the case forward.

The original lawsuit was filed in March 2004 by residents Neila MacQueen, Joe Petitpas, Ann Ross and Iris Crawford, who are seeking compensation and a mechanism to monitor the risks posed by the toxic emissions brought by over a century of steelmaking in Sydney.